Kashmir attack: Violence has never been our policy, says FM
munich — India should have acted more responsibly, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said while referring to accusations pertaining to the attack in Pulwama, Indian Kashmir, and asked if New Delhi “desired peace and stability in the region or political point-scoring with attention on the upcoming elections?”
At least 44 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed on Thursday in the deadliest attack on security forces since 2002.
Violence has never been the policy of the Pakistan government, Qureshi said.
“Violence is not a (strategy) nor is our government’s policy,” Qureshi said while speaking to GeoNews in Munich, where he has been attending the Munich Security Conference.
The foreign minister said that instead of hurling accusations at Pakistan, if India had any “actionable evidence” against the country, they should share it with them.
“Share it with us, we will investigate it with integrity and see what the reality is,” Qureshi said while assuring that they would cooperate.
The foreign minister also reiterated that Pakistan wanted peace.
“Our message is of peace, not war,” Qureshi said.
Qureshi said he was “a little sad” that, without investigating the incident, India had instantly levelled allegations against Pakistan in a “knee-jerk reaction”.
He said that the world has condemned the incident “as they should, as lives have been lost”.
Qureshi said that the voices coming from within India should also be heard, such as that of former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah, who has said that placing blame on Pakistan was the “easy route” and that Indian authorities should examine its policies in Kashmir.
The minister said that he had spoken to various foreign ministers, including to the Russian foreign minister, in Moscow and told them that he had been fearful there would be some “misadventure” for political purposes prior to the election (in India).
Similarly, the minister said that around two months ago, Pakistani officials had briefed P5 (US, China, Russia, UK and France) envoys in Islamabad that they feared something or the other would take place in India to “distract attention” from the Kashmir issue. —